Viddy well at this horror show cine, o my brothers. Kubrick’s most controversial film, this was the definitive cult film in the U.K after its withdrawal from our eyes for 26 years. (Indeed, I still remember the sweaty-palmed glee with which I devoured the film for the first time when a friend imported a video copy from the US.) A horror comic masterpiece of sorts, without a shadow of a doubt, it follows the story of a young murderer cum rapist in a futuristic nihilistic Britain who is released from prison after undergoing the Ludovico experimental treatment, this time as a victim of society. (more…)

Thanksgiving is just a little over a week away as time just zooms forward. This is why none of us should ever be hoping for something set for weeks or months in the future. We need to appreciate the time we have though it won’t hurt to wish away something we want to forget. Weather nationwide has been dropping significantly, and many are bracing for a cold winter. I am pleased to mention here that Allan Fish continues to come along nicely at home after his long stay in a British hospital. This is just so fantastic when you consider the serious difficulties he has endured. This is the greatest of news too for his lovely mum and aunt Anne.

After an unavoidable delay after my first entry in the 2014 Caldecott Medal Contender series, I will be resuming this coming week, and will commence to accelerate as we move forward.

Our good friend, the renowned artist Terrill Welch’s sublime impressionistic oil painting “Evening Thunderclouds Over the Straight of Georgia” has a fierce sensory undercurrent – a raging and visceral convergence of elemental properties that would even impress the regal flounder from the Grimm Brother’s The Fisherman and His Wife whose own ire required the proper theatrical trappings to denote that all is not well in the heavens. But by her own admission the artist confessed the enormous challenge of documenting an experience that is both cosmic and suffused with a swirling sense of movement. Staged at Georgina Point at the Straight of Georgia which separates Vancouver Island from the coast of British Columbia, the creator is armed only with an easel, a brush and a tube of oil paint – bare essentials with which to create an infinite event, one where lights have dimmed and an unwanted guest has intruded without proof of identity, to cast a pall of mystery and foreboding during the short interval between day and night. With bold application of impressionist strokes, the painter has forged a scene of turbulent force – visceral and seemingly controlled by spiritual entities. For those who like expansive outdoor atmospherics, defined by brooding weather and furious movement, Terrill Welch’s “Evening Thunderclouds Over the Straight of Georgia” is for you. It is imbued with a spiritual context – one that implies that all is not well beyond those pearly gates. Audacious and original, this meteorological tapestry is unquestionably a masterpiece by a singular artist.

This past week we attended a terrific music show at Joey’s in West Milford, where another high school acquaintance -Gene Focarelli- did a fabulous job as a single vocalist/guitarist, covering rock standards from the 60’s and 70’s as well as some original material. The kids really liked his presentation quite a bit. It ran from 8 till 11 on Friday night.

On Saturday afternoon Lucille, Jeremy and I attended an excellent matinee college staging of Reginald Rose’s beloved work 12 ANGRY MEN at the school auditorium of Stevens Institute of Technology in Hoboken. My sister-in-law Rita and my brother Paul’s nephew Tino Ivezaj played the crucial role of the Third Juror -Lee J. Cobb’s role in the film- and he delivered a powerful turn! Simple by effective staging of a work always carried by the electrifying script. (more…)

2014 Jersey Filmmakers of Tomorrow Bergen County High School Student James Gandolfini Best of the Fest Winner: Melanie Juliano of Cliffside Park High School for her film “100 Likes”

On November 8th 2014, the Fort Lee Film Commission sponsored our 10th annual Jersey Filmmakers of Tomorrow Bergen County High School Student Film Festival in the auditorium of Fort Lee High School. This festival is open to all high school students who reside in Bergen County. This year the festival finalists screening & awards ceremony moved back to Fort Lee from Media Mix Studio in Allendale in preparation for the future home of this annual festival at the soon to be built Barrymore Film Center cinema and museum on Main Street in Fort Lee, NJ, the first American film town and birthplace of the American film industry.

This year we had over 120 submissions from around Bergen County and there were 10 finalists. The judges this year include Michael Gandolfini, son of the late great acclaimed New Jersey native and actor James Gandolfini. Our sponsors include Downtown Community Television Center and Sirk Productions, both of Manhattan. We also thank James Gandolfini’s great friend Tom Richardson for his support as well as Mr. Gandolfini’s sisters Johanna Antonacci and Leta Gandolfini. Johanna presented our top prize, the James Gandolfini Best of the Fest Award to our 2014 winner Melanie Juliano.

The James Gandolfini Best of the Fest winner receives $500 and an internship with Downtown Community Television Center. James Gandolfini had a working relationship with DCTV and they make this internship available to us in his memory. Also the winner receives 72 hours of post production tom at Sirk Productions Digital Studio on West 31st Street in New York City. Fort Lee Film Commission member Marc Pérez is one of the co-founders of Sirk. (more…)

Alain Resnais is a filmmaker widely revered as a harbinger of the many contemporary filmic launches testing our tolerance for risk and innovation. Unlike many of those he supposedly inspired, his was not a career with much staying power in the limelight. As we prepare to size up his signature (and debut) piece, Hiroshima Mon Amour (1959), we’ll begin with the conundrum of supposed dynamite branding having apparently lost its way, or at least having lost its compellingness. The supposed magic touch, of our film at issue here (produced in association with screenwriter [novelist, playwright, and filmmaker] Marguerite Duras), pertains to his bringing to quite unnerving immediacy an impasse between the two protagonists. Let us posit, for the sake of coming to savor singular energies here (accounting for an early noteworthiness and niche patronage but no significant subscription to his method) which have perhaps not effectively made it on to the global radar, that it is the weight of world-historical inundation which ushers in a type of crisis both devastating and manageable. More succinctly, I’d like to propose that we are not (horrific details and pundits notwithstanding) getting ourselves into the onset of a death march, but instead a joyousness in being under heavy but not impossible fire. Resnais haunts later film not for depiction of hopeless decadence; but instead for getting under its skin the marvel of a daunting competence. (more…)

“James Gandolfini Prize” awarded to Melanie by the late actor’s sister!!

Melanie Juliano’s short film “100 Likes” was awarded FIRST PLACE on Saturday afternoon by the ‘Jersey Film Makers of Tomorrow Bergen County Film Festival” run with the support of the Fort Lee Film Commission and film maker Tom Meyers and executive director Nelson Page. James Gandolfini’s sister awarded Melanie with the festival’s top prize (there were originally well over 120 films in the running, but that number was reduced to ten (10) finalists. These were shown on the big screen of the Fort Lee High School Auditorium, and all the directors -including Melanie- were asked to speak to the audience about their films. The competition was fierce with several films displaying full scripts and casts, and stirring themes. After that the third place prize was given out, and then the second place, which went to a young film maker who had placed two films in the final bracket. Then, Melanie’s name was announced as the Grand Prize winner, and all of us went crazy!!! Melanie won two internships, a $500 check and the beautiful plaque. This was one of the happiest days of our lives. Gandolfini’s sister told Melanie he expected to see her in Hollywood. 1) Melanie’s first-place plaque 2) Melanie posing with second and third place finishers 3) Melanie with mom Lucille

Melanie’s win was a big honor for Cliffside Park High School, as all the other finalists were from a number of other Bergen County High Schools.

For the second year in a row we took a trip up to Salem, MA, leaving early and coming home late on Thursday, 11/6. Admittedly, quite grueling to drive a total of ten hours (to and from) on the same day with rain dampening the festivities no less, but we did make the best of it making plenty of stops around this historic and scenically beautiful town.

We saw four films in theaters this week, although the final one, BIG HERO 6 will be seen late tonight after this MMD goes out. I will revise accordingly.

Interstellar ***** (Friday night) Ridgefield Park Starplex

The Theory of Everything *** (Sat. night) Regal Cinemas-Manhattan

Nightcrawler **** 1/2 (Sunday morning) Secaucus multiplex

Big Hero 6 **** (Sunday evening) Starplex

As to INTERSTELLAR, I was utterly overwhelmed in a way few films of recent years have done. The film (strains of Gattaca, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Fountain are clear enough) is thought-provoking, dreamy, surreal, sensory, heart-stopping and philosophically ambitious. Above all it is heart-breaking, one of the most emotional films of this or any year. I dare say this is Nolan’s masterpiece. Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain and Casey Affleck are on board and the pulsating elegiac score in Phillip Glass mode by Hans Zimmer is the year’s most unforgettable in that category.

Eddie Redmayne is very good in emulating Daniel-Day Lewis’ turn in ‘My Left Foot’ in THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING and this often moving look at the love life of Stephen Hawking is dramatically effective, but in the end rather convential and nothing special.

NIGHTCRAWLER is brutal and engrossing, and with some noirish textures and a terrific lead performance by Jake Gyllenthal. Will try and elaborate more on the thread soon enough. Definitely a rather unique idea.

Note: This is the twenty-seventh entry in the ongoing ‘Allan Fish Bonanza Encore series.’ It considers a Terence Davies masterwork that Allan placed at No. 2 during his 1990’s countdown of a few years ago.

Watching Terence Davies’ autobiographical piece was, to this reviewer, rather like flicking through a family album, heralding from a family barely removed from that depicted in the film, in location, time and spirit. It isn’t a prerequisite to be acquainted with the north, or with Catholicism, or remembrances of the 1950s, but it certainly helps. And though those who cannot tick those boxes can and do enjoy and celebrate the film, they do miss something in the translation.

It’s more than merely an exercise in nostalgia, critics both professional and amateur have talked of it being like a stream of the subconscious, and in many ways they’re right, with remembrances of different years and moods taking place seemingly at the same time. Essentially, the viewer is transported much like Scrooge by the spirits of Christmas into the childhood remembrances of Bud, an 11 year old from the terraced streets of Liverpool. All the expected reminiscences are present and correct, from canings to show the kids who’s boss and visits to Nitty Nora the Bug Explorer to the mind-numbing tedium of assembly and warm welcomes to black men who mistakenly come to the door to begging for a shilling for the pictures and neighbourly gatherings on the doorstep. It really is a different world, and one so dreamlike that one is not surprised when seemingly otherworldly voices ring in one’s ear, reminiscences not just of Bud’s but of our own collective movie-going subconscious. Those with ears to hear will recognise choice sound-bites from Kind Hearts and Coronets, The Happiest Days of Your Life, Meet Me in St Louis, The Ladykillers, Private’s Progress, Great Expectations and, several times, The Magnificent Ambersons, mixed with songs from Nat King Cole, Doris Day and Debbie Reynolds (Tammy, naturally). To this, add several choice snippets of hymns known to anyone who’s suffered through a Catholic primary education, Waltons-like ‘goodnights’, and a friend of the family who lives to do Cagney and EGR impressions. To this add a truly stunning visual sense, which bathes the film in a romantic, nostalgic glow despite actually being very gloomy in its surface aesthetics. Rain, as befits the wet North-West, is never far away, and the reflection of rain patterns on windows on wallpaper in darkened rooms adds a further ethereal touch. And not for nothing does the film open with a credit time lapse shot of a bowl of roses slowly wilting and dying, a simple but telling metaphor for the fleeting nature of those happiest days of Bud’s, and Terence’s, lives. (more…)

Note: This is the first entry in the 2014 Caldecott Medal Contender series. The series does not purport to predict what the committee will choose, rather it attempts to gauge what the writer feels should be in the running. In most instances the books that are featured in the series have been touted as contenders in various online round-ups, but for the ones that are not, the inclusions are a humble plea to the committee for consideration. It is anticipated the series will include between 20 and 25 titles; the order which they are being presented in is arbitrary, as every book in this series is a contender.

Until he passed away on June 24, 2012, when he was around 100 years old, “Lonesome George,” a giant tortoise and descendant of the ancient Giantess George, was known as the poster boy of worldwide conservation. People visiting this rarest of reptiles at his enclosure on the Galapagos Island archipelago were greeted by a sign that read “Whatever happens to this single animal, let him always remind us that the fate of all living things on Earth is in human hands.” Indeed the scholar Henry Nicholls likened George’s story as one of “a conservation icon about a creature who touches all who see and hear about him, an animal whose plight embodies the practical, philosophical and ethical challenges of preserving our fragile planet.” Repeated efforts to awaken the long dormant procreation drive of the reptile ultimately failed, but the efforts can aptly be described as herculean.

The renowned award-winning author, naturalist and environmentalist Jean Craighead George was the perfect fit for this kind of story, and in an unlikely coincidence even her marriage name provides a fitting label in relating a narrative that began a million years ago, when the vegetarian Giantess George roamed a desert terrain, eating cacti and low-lying greens. A storm eventually engulfs the tortoise and some relatives into an ocean current that leaves it to surface on a raft that touches lands on a small arid and rainy island near the equator later known as San Cristobal. Giantess George laid eggs, and eventually ran out of ground plants, a situation that forced her to extend her long neck to eat tress leaves. She died at around 200 years old, but her off spring -whose necks were even longer as evolution continued to progress- began to inhabit some of the other islands. By the time of the 1500’s some Panamanians discovered the island and the reptiles. In short order sailors and pirates plundered the tortoise population, eating some, while unleashing rats, pigs and goats who helped to diminish a 200,000 strong population to one of only a few thousand. (more…)

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Wonders in the Dark is a blog dedicated to the arts, especially film, theatre and music. An open forum is highly encouraged, as the site proctors are usually ready and able to engage with ongoing conversation.